VETERANS COMBINE EXPERIENCE AND BALLET

Audiences have called the work powerful, realistic, beautiful and harrowing.

On May 31 and June 1, Exit 12 Dance Company joins Ballet Theatre Company's 10th Anniversary Performance to present an excerpt of their recent work.

Led by Roman Baca, a U.S. Marine who served in Fallujah, Iraq, and Lisa Fitzgerald, an accomplished ballerina, the company is hard at work producing a show based on a young man's decision to leave the art world for the military, how that decision impacted those close to him, and how his life turns when he is shipped to war.

Sergeant Roman Baca and Sergeant Joseph D'Amico spent long nights on post together when they weren't patrolling Fallujah, Iraq, with their fellow U.S. Marines. In the midst of the chaos and boredom, they passed the time by discussing what they would do when they returned from war. Topics ranged from restaurants that they would visit, vacations they would take, but every conversation eventually turned back to talk of a show about war, ballet, love and loss. Together they even wrote a rough script and visualized potential audiences.

When Baca returned from combat he took time going through his list that he dreamed of in the desert. He took time and fulfilled many of those wishes from Iraq. Still however, no matter what he did or where he went his thoughts, like in the desert, kept going back to the idea of the show he and D'Amico talked about.

In April '07, a year after his return, Baca teamed with two ballerinas, Fitzgerald and Lara Vilches, and created small dance studies working out of a studio off of exit 12 on the FDR in Manhattan.

Baca likes to call this 15-minute excerpt their commercial, as it heralds their larger work. He was ecstatic when he invited D'Amico to join the project, and D'Amico committed with amazing fervor. The company has showcased their work in small shows from Manhattan to Vermont.

Performances are May 31 at 7:30 pm. and June 1 at 1:00 pm. at Hoffman Auditorium, Carol Autorino Center located within the campus of St. Joseph College in West Hartford.